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Judgment
C. Hari Shankar, J.
This is a commercial appeal which has been filed with a delay of 130 days.
The Supreme Court has, in Government of Maharashtra v. Borse Brothers Engineers & Contractors Pvt. Ltd1 and Jharkhand Urja Utpadan Nigam Ltd. v. Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd2, held that delay in commercial appeals has to be strictly explained and that the latitude which appellate courts enjoy while dealing with applications for condonation of delay in other appeals preferred under Section 96 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 would not be available in commercial appeals under Section 13 of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015.
The application for condonation of delay in the present case reads thus:
“APPLICATION U/s 5 OF THE LIMITATION ACT R/W SECTION 151 C.P.C. FOR CONDONATION OF DELAY OF 130 DAYS IN FILING THE PRESENT APPEAL
MOST RESPECTFULLY SHOWETH:
1.That the appellant have preferred the captioned Civil Appeal in the facts and circumstances as stated and on the grounds as set out therein, contents whereof for the sake of brevity are not being repeated herein as such they may be read and treated as part and parcel of this application and the Petitioners crave leave of this Hon’ble Court to refer to and rely upon the same at the time of disposal of this application.
2.That the appellant is also facing financial crisis due to which the appellant could not engage his counsel for preparing the appeal against the impugned judgment / decree dated 24.12.2025.
3.That the delay caused in filing of present appeal for is not at all intentional, deliberate or willful but was due to sufficient reasons/cause beyond the control of the applicant/plaintiff, as explained above.
4.That it is in the interest of justice and facts and circumstances of the case also warrant that the delay of 130 days caused in preferring the present appeal be condoned.
Prayer
It is, therefore, most respectfully prayed that the delay of 130 days is caused in filing the present appeal may kindly be condoned, in the interest of justice.”
It goes without saying that the aforesaid explanation cannot constitute any explanation at all in the eyes of law, to explain the delay of as many as 130 days.
Following the judgment of the Supreme Court in Borse Brothers and Jharkhand Urja Utpadan Nigam, therefore, we reject the application for condonation of delay.
Accordingly, the appeal is also dismissed on the ground of delay without going into merits.
Pending applications also stand dismissed.